Wow, I am completely underwhelmed. Steve spent 10 minutes talking about freaking Widgets. I mean COME ON. And who is the real beneficiary of all this fluff (most of which was already seen before)? WINDOWS USERS. I'm sorry but where is the new stuff? Hardware wise we haven't gotten anything besides the AppleTV and the iPhone. Way to stay commited to Macs. I'm over it.

It seems like from what I can tell, with every instance of beryl i've watched, that linux is making leaps and bounds over what MS and Apple are offering in terms of 3D desktops. I have no idea how usable they are, what hardware it takes to run them, or how easy they are to setup, but they sure are wowing me to the point that i'd consider installing linux on one of my machines.

It seems like from what I can tell, with every instance of beryl i've watched, that linux is making leaps and bounds over what MS and Apple are offering in terms of 3D desktops. I have no idea how usable they are, what hardware it takes to run them, or how easy they are to setup, but they sure are wowing me to the point that i'd consider installing linux on one of my machines.

How are they making leaps and bounds over Windows and Mac? From what I saw they used all the 3D ideas from Vista and Tiger, and they're still stealing GUI icons from both OS's. Doesn't seem very original to me.

So, now Apple's exerts more control again. Like with the dock (where apps have to go on the left, and files/folders on the right), now we're forced to have the sidebar icons in the order they want us to have them in, not what's convenient for the user? And they compare it to the source list in itunes, which, in my opinion, broke their software more then it helped. I mean, I've got files listed under audiobooks that aren't audiobooks, and I've got audiobooks (with the correct genre and everything) listed as a music file, and not under audiobooks.

And with an office of 8 computers, what if I only want one or two to show up?

At its developers conference Monday, Apple unveiled a near final version of Mac OS X Leopard, the sixth major release of what the company calls the "worlds most advanced operating system."

Scheduled to ship in October, Leopard introduces over 300 new features, including a new Desktop and Dock with Stacks, an updated Finder featuring Cover Flow, Quick Look, Time Machine, Spaces and enhanced iChat and Mail applications.

"Leopard is the best release of Mac OS X to date, surpassing even Tiger, and will further extend Mac OS Xs leadership as the most advanced and innovative operating system in the world," said Apple chief executive Steve Jobs, Apples CEO. "We think current and prospective customers are going to love Leopard, and that it will help make the Mac even more popular."

The next-generation Apple OS includes a completely new Dock featuring Stacks, which can help manage a users desktop clutter caused by browser and email downloads. With the click of a mouse, users can instantly fan out the contents of a stack to easily see each item.

Leopards Finder has been completely redesigned, adding Cover Flow as an innovative way to quickly browse and locate files and applications. Finders new Sidebar simplifies the organization of files on a Mac, and adds easy access to shared Macs and PCs on a home network. Subscribers to .Mac can also use the new Back to my Mac" feature to browse and access files on their remote Macs over the Internet. Also new in Leopard is Quick Look, a new way for users to instantly preview almost any file, and even play media files, without opening an application.

With its unique ability to let users travel back in time to find deleted files, applications, photos and other digital media, Time Machine offers a compelling new way to protect your digital life. With just a one-click setup, Time Machine automatically keeps an up-to-date copy of everything on the Mac. In the event a file is lost, users can use Mac OS Xs Spotlight to search back through time to find and then instantly restore the file. Time Machine can automatically back up a Mac to an external hard drive connected with a FireWire or USB cable, to a server, or wirelessly to an AirPort Extreme base station with an attached hard drive.

Leopard also includes three new technologies that take full advantage of the latest developments in processor hardware: full native 64-bit support to enable applications to take complete advantage of 64-bit processing while still running side by side with existing 32-bit Mac OS X applications and drivers; easy multi-core optimization and scheduling to take advantage of the latest Intel hardware; and Core Animation, helping developers easily create animated user experiences as amazing as Leopards Spaces and Time Machine in their own applications.

Other new features in Leopard include:
Leopard Mail, offering more ways to customize and add personal style to email than ever before, with more than 30 beautiful stationery designs and layouts that look great on a Mac or Windows PC; Notes, making it as easy to take and organize notes as it is to compose and read emails; To Dos, for creating lists viewed directly in Mail and automatically sync them with iCal; and data detectors that automatically sense phone numbers, addresses and events so they can be easily added to Address Book or iCal;Leopard iChat with iChat Theater, letting users present photos, presentations, videos and files in a video conference; Photo Booth effects, enabling users to transform their iChat video in real time with fun distortion and color effects; and video backdrops that allow users to choose any photo or video that makes them appear to be anywhere in the world, or out of it;Leopard iCal, introducing powerful group calendaring features based on the open CalDAV standard that make it easy to organize and coordinate schedules with other people;Spaces, giving users a powerful new, clutter-free way to create customized spaces on the desktop with only the applications or files needed for each project, and the ability to quickly switch between them with one click of a mouse or keystroke;Web Clip, bringing anything that a user wants from a web page to Dashboard as a live widget;Boot Camp, making it possible to run Windows natively on Intel-based Macs*; andnew development tools, including Xcode 3 with a next generation editor; an all new Interface Builder for easier integration of advanced animation effects into an application; simpler debugging; and support for Objective-C 2.0; DashCode, a better way to create new Dashboard widgets without writing a line of code; and Xray, a new application for optimizing application performance.
Pricing & Availability

Mac OS X version 10.5 Leopard is scheduled to ship in October and will be available through the Apple Store, Apples retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $129 (US) for a single user license. The Mac OS X Leopard Family Pack is a single-residence, five-user license that will be available for a suggested retail price of $199 (US). Volume and maintenance pricing is available from Apple.

Is it me or was I tripping at the MacWorld Keynote address in January? I thought I saw an Apple demo of iChat where you could have a feature where you could control a friend's Mac via iChat (ala Remote Desktop). I specifically remember the Apple guy talking saying in the demo "How many of you out there have parents that always need help with their Mac's but have a hard time showing them how to do certain things?" Did anyone else see this demo at MacWorld? Or am I having weird Mac dreams where I envision cool features not yet developed? If this is NOT a dream and someone else CAN verify that this REALLY was shown at MacWorld, then what happened to it? I didn't see anything like this at this Keynote OR on the Apple site. Can someone verify if this feature will be on the Leopard iChat? Thanks!

Do you really think that Apple is copying Vista or is it the the other way around? C'mon, there are so many things in Vista that I know were copied from OS X - Spotlight, Widgets, Expose - do I need to go on? After all the things that Vista has stolen from OS X, do you REALLY think then that Apple would even think about stealing something from Vista and incorporating into Leopard? I think not. I think this is one of those things that Apple had in the works WAY before Vista came out.

Your right and I agree that MS did copy stuff from Apple, but its just that particular aspect is over used thesedays! Apple should keep themselves somewhat differentiated from MS in some sort of way in regards with UI design, that just hits a little to close to home in my book as copying since Vista came out with it prior is all Im saying.

But I am disappointed the beta is not being made available to more developers. It is quite elitist. Not everyone can affort $5000 for a trip to SF, but we need to test our software too...

So that's definitely true then? I saw it on the live MacRumours Chat thing but haven't seen it anywhere else yet.

Does it just mean devs not at the conference won't get it today/soon or simply won't get it at all?! If not getting it at all, then there's going to be a lot of furious developers who have paid for an ADC account specifically for Leopard builds (myself included). Not only that, but it would completely go against what's been up on developer.apple.com for a few months: "Leopard beta available FIRST at WWDC" - note that it doesn't say "available ONLY at WWDC".

It seems like from what I can tell, with every instance of beryl i've watched, that linux is making leaps and bounds over what MS and Apple are offering in terms of 3D desktops. I have no idea how usable they are, what hardware it takes to run them, or how easy they are to setup, but they sure are wowing me to the point that i'd consider installing linux on one of my machines.

Whew! Glad I wasn't dreaming. Thanks for making me realize that I wasn't the only one. Yeah, I too have been seeing the things that Linux has been up to with Beryl. I do say though, I really do like the features of "Quick Look." Especially the part where you can view the contents of a file without even opening it. That and the "Cover Flow" apsect of it. I like that there are nice asthetic aspects of Leopard (maybe not as cool as Beryl) but also convenient features that make work flow easier and faster.

It seems like from what I can tell, with every instance of beryl i've watched, that linux is making leaps and bounds over what MS and Apple are offering in terms of 3D desktops. I have no idea how usable they are, what hardware it takes to run them, or how easy they are to setup, but they sure are wowing me to the point that i'd consider installing linux on one of my machines.

Whew! Glad I wasn't dreaming. Thanks for making me realize that I wasn't the only one. Yeah, I too have been seeing the things that Linux has been up to with Beryl. I do say though, I really do like the features of "Quick Look." Especially the part where you can view the contents of a file without even opening it. That and the "Cover Flow" apsect of it. I like that there are nice asthetic aspects of Leopard (maybe not as cool as Beryl) but also convenient features that make work flow easier and faster.

I can't believe it's still Aqua. There's a safe bet it'll be removed by October. After all, they have removed all traces of blue from the site and the greys rule instead. And grey/black combo looks so much better and calmer than the candy blue. Not that Aqua is ugly, it's great, but that one would be better.

Does it just mean devs not at the conference won't get it today/soon or simply won't get it at all?!

I think it just means that the particular build they're handing out at the conference is not going to be widely distributed. That is, it's basically just a demo build -- I somehow got the impression during the keynote presentation that the WWDC build is at least two weeks old (basically the time they had to prepare the presentation). So Apple's internal builds must be further along. I'll bet the usual (main) channels get a more current build within a week.

Oh please god let there be an option to make the finder bar opaque as I can't stand this ridiculous transparency eyecandy!!! Argghhh. Trying to make it like Vista hmm? Cmon Appple be original and keep it opaque, it was fine that way!

It seems like from what I can tell, with every instance of beryl i've watched, that linux is making leaps and bounds over what MS and Apple are offering in terms of 3D desktops. I have no idea how usable they are, what hardware it takes to run them, or how easy they are to setup, but they sure are wowing me to the point that i'd consider installing linux on one of my machines.

Your right. I think I could really use those wavy windows all day. Would increase my productivity 10 fold.

Do you really think that Apple is copying Vista or is it the the other way around? C'mon, there are so many things in Vista that I know were copied from OS X - Spotlight, Widgets, Expose - do I need to go on? After all the things that Vista has stolen from OS X, do you REALLY think then that Apple would even think about stealing something from Vista and incorporating into Leopard? I think not. I think this is one of those things that Apple had in the works WAY before Vista came out.

Is it me or was I tripping at the MacWorld Keynote address in January? I thought I saw an Apple demo of iChat where you could have a feature where you could control a friend's Mac via iChat (ala Remote Desktop). I specifically remember the Apple guy talking saying in the demo "How many of you out there have parents that always need help with their Mac's but have a hard time showing them how to do certain things?" Did anyone else see this demo at MacWorld? Or am I having weird Mac dreams where I envision cool features not yet developed? If this is NOT a dream and someone else CAN verify that this REALLY was shown at MacWorld, then what happened to it? I didn't see anything like this at this Keynote OR on the Apple site. Can someone verify if this feature will be on the Leopard iChat? Thanks!

I also remember that feature.

I was rather underwhelmed at the desktop innovations in comparison to some of the features available from linux with their 3D beryl demos.

It seems like from what I can tell, with every instance of beryl i've watched, that linux is making leaps and bounds over what MS and Apple are offering in terms of 3D desktops. I have no idea how usable they are, what hardware it takes to run them, or how easy they are to setup, but they sure are wowing me to the point that i'd consider installing linux on one of my machines.

Yes. Nothing new but a horribly user unfriendly website redesign. You have to go through five different menus to get to the same info that used to take maybe 2 clicks...and its more like iTunes, come on!